78R1430 JLZ-D

By:  Dutton                                                     H.C.R. No. 19 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, A key objective of Texas' public education system as 
stated in the Texas Education Code is that, through enhanced 
dropout prevention efforts, all students will remain in school 
until they obtain a high school diploma; to ensure that public 
schools make every effort to achieve this goal, dropout rates have 
been a major component of the state's accountability system since 
its inception, and both district accreditation and campus ratings 
depend on how well schools perform in this regard; and
	WHEREAS, Since 1984, with passage of the groundbreaking 
reforms of House Bill 72, school districts have been required to 
publish annual performance reports including attendance data and 
dropout rates; however, dropout data was not collected uniformly or 
systematically statewide until development of the Public Education 
Information Management System, which began collecting dropout data 
during the 1987-1988 school year; and
	WHEREAS, Building on the 1984 reforms, the legislature in 
1987 required the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to determine the 
number of dropouts in grades 7 through 12 for each campus, district, 
county, and region and to submit a biennial report to the 
legislature and governor on the dropout rates for students in each 
of those grades, on projected five-year longitudinal dropout rates 
for each grade, and on a systematic plan for reducing those 
longitudinal rates to meet specified goals; and
	WHEREAS, A major criticism of this method of dropout 
reporting is that calculating rates based on a span of grades 7 
through 12, though statutorily required, includes large numbers of 
students in middle school grades who are highly unlikely to drop out 
and thus distorts the true picture, obscuring the fact that the real 
problem lies in high school when students are more likely to drop 
out of school; and
	WHEREAS, Although the legislature addressed the issue in 2001 
by adding high school completion rates as a performance indicator 
and requiring TEA, on an annual basis, to report completion rates of 
students entering ninth grade based on certain factors, questions 
about the validity of dropout reporting persist; and
	WHEREAS, Given the importance attached to dropout rates in 
the state's accountability system as a meaningful measure of 
student achievement and of overall school performance, it is 
essential that the data used to judge that performance be as 
accurate as possible; furthermore, before the state can adequately 
address the dropout problem and devote the necessary resources to 
combat it, it must know the problem's full extent; now, therefore, 
be it
	RESOLVED, That the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby request the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house 
of representatives to create a joint interim committee to study the 
issue of dropout rates in grades 9 through 12; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the membership of the committee include at 
least three members of the House Committee on Public Education and 
at least three members of the Senate Committee on Education; and, be 
it further
	RESOLVED, That the committee's proceedings and operations be 
governed by such general rules and policies for joint interim 
committees as the 78th Legislature may adopt and that such rules and 
policies supersede the provisions of this resolution to the extent 
of any conflict; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the committee submit a full report, including 
findings and recommendations, to the 79th Texas Legislature when it 
convenes in January 2005.